The Hopeful death in surrendur

We go through life with plans. Constantly making plans...what our life will look like...who we will marry....what we are going to do this weekend...etc. Without even stopping to say...ok what Does God want my future to look like. Mostly because we think he is not involved in the little things...but beloved...HE IS.

Plans. We long to make plans. For you who seek God we usually invite God into those plans...asking him to show us what is the best road to take. The best mate, the best church, etc.

But are we surrendered. We can ask God all we want about our future..but are we really asking him, or telling him. Inviting God into our plans can be very hard. Because deep down, we don't really know if we can trust God. When we journey into his heart. When we start knowing his heart for us we see that we can trust him..but we first must begin by knowing his character. Ok getting sidetracked.

God is a God who is jealous for us, he wants all of us. He wants all of our plans, all of our future, all of our hearts. He is also a God who will not force himself on us. He will not force himself to lay all of us, all or our plans upon the altar. He wants this done voluntarily. This cannot be easy. To go to God and say "alright God, I am putting everything I want into your hands, its up to you." This is a dying to ourselves. Its trusting that God wants the best for us...even if we don't know the best. But we love to be in control..or at least the illusion of thinking we are in control.

I'm not going to type it all out ..but please refer to Genesis 22 for this blog. We see a story of Abraham. God promised Abraham that from him, from his line, his descendants would number the stars. Abraham had a hard time believing this because he and his wife were baron. Nevertheless they had a child...Issac. God made Abraham a promise of a child..even though it was impossible...and boom, theres a child.

So you can imagine now that Abraham is making all these plans. Later on down the road when Issac was a teenager God (a loving G0d). Tells Abraham to sacrifice his son (to literally kill his son). What must Abraham be thinking. God had made all these promises to him...but if he were to kill his son...those promises were gone. But Abraham knew God, knew that he was a Good, kind and loving God. So without seeing the future Abraham went to sacrifice his only son (whom all these promises were supposed to come from and thru). At the last minute God sent a ram to take the place of Issac. Again we know this story but please refer to the whole chapter.

I cant imagine what Abraham was thinking as he was walking up to kill his only son, after he had started making plans. But He knew God, he trusted God, and because of his trust he was willing to go and do this, to surrender his plans and his hopes to God. Why, how could he do this. Because he knew God, because he TRUSTED GOD.

Beloved God calls us to do the same thing. To lay down our plans, our goals, everything we want, to lay it down upon the altar and let it burn. So that God can take our dreams,, and make them even better. God doesn't just want Good for us.... He wants the best. But will we believe it?

Will we take our dreams...our loves....our goals. And truly lay them down before God and say "have your way with them". Or will we hold on so tightly because we truly don't believe that the God we serve is a kind and loving God. And that is plans for us are better that we can imagine.

Its surrender, to a God who is jealous for us, jealous for the whole of us. We might not always see a ram, but can we get to a place where we can say. "NO matter what God, I know you are Good, and even though I cant see them, i will lay everything down before you for something better'.

Beloved, its a death, but a death unto knowing God more, unto be living that he holds the best things for us in his hands, if we will only LET GO. Can we let go. Its a death, its dying to ourselves, dying to our dreams, dying to our loves. Can we trust him. Beloved his love for us is great. Just because we lay it down does not mean He is going to take it away. It just means, we are giving ourselves to him in a place of surrender. So that the God of grace and mercy can truly have his way in our lives.

Beloved its not easy, in fact its hard, its gut wrenching, but in the end its worth it. TO lay down everything and to rest in the arms of the always Loving, always merciful God. Lay it down.